Saggesser or Carmon or….

I have been trying to sort out the maiden name of my great-grand uncle’s wife. His name was Frederick S Burgess, born June of 1874 and died sometime after 1945. He and his wife Lulu M. had 6 children and lived in Olean, New York and also Bradford and Kane, Pennsylvania.

 

Lulu is the one that has me completely confused. She was born about 1881 in New York State. I am pretty sure her mother’s name was Clarissa and that she had 1 or 2 sisters, one who’s name was Gretchen and the other married a Withey, although, these two sisters may be the same person.

 

I found Gretchen listed on the 1910 census as Gretchen Saggesser and single living with her mother Clarissa and step-father Joseph Hadley living in Kane, Pennsylvania. According to the census she was 18 years old at the time. I found her mother Clarissa Saggesser listed in the Bradford, Pennsylvania phone directory listed as Mrs. Clarissa Saggesser in 1893, the year after Gretchen would have been born. She isn’t listed for any other year and the only other Saggesser listed is a W. R. Saggesser listed at a different address.

 

When looking into Lulu Burgess I found several clippings that ended up creating more confusion. The first is a notice on the death of her father, which I believe to be her step-father according to the 1910 census and the listing of her sister.

 

Olean Times, May 26, 1930

 

Mrs. Fred Burgess and family, South Eleventh Street, are in Kane, Pa., today where they attended the funeral of Mrs. Burgess’ father Joseph Hadley.

 

The next listing seven months later was for the death of her father, again.

 

Olean Times, January 26, 1931

 

Mrs. Fred Burgess, South Eleventh Street, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Swartz, East State Street, and Leo Brunner, West Henley Street, left today for Sylvan Beach, N. Y. to attend the funeral of Mrs. Burgess’ father Charles Carmon.

 

This confused me as the last name was Carmon and not Saggesser like her listed sister from the 1910 census. From the 1910 census I noted that their mother Clarissa had been married just twice.

 

The last note I found for Lulu was the death of her brother-in-law in 1932. Lloyd Withey would die in a boating accident at the age of 74, making him twice the age of his wife, whose name isn’t mentioned in any of the stories in the newspapers of the accident.

 

Times Evening Herald, August 15, 1932

 

Mrs. Fred Burgess and son Willard, South Eleventh Street, And Lewis Swartz, Jefferson Street, have returned from Sylvan Beach, Oneida Lake, called there by the death of Mrs. Burgess’ brother-in-law, Captain Lloyd Withey, Sylvan beach, who was drown in Oneida Lake, Sunday, August 2. Captain Withey succeeded in rescuing the ten passengers of his boat, the Agnes W. when it capsized and then went down with his boat.

 

It seems that they were boating in the dark.

 

Times Evening Herald, August 8, 1932

Man Drown As Boats Collide

 

Sylvan beach, N. Y., Aug 8 – (UP) – a pleasure boat owner was drowned in Lake Oneida near here last night when his craft carrying ten passengers crashed into the sie of a tug owned by John E Matton and Son of Waterford, N. Y.

 

Lloyd Withey, living near here died despite attempts to revive him after he was taken from the lake by boatmen who had put out from shore to aid the stricken pleasure boat.

 

The boat’s bow was stove in when it struck the tug broadside amidships, passengers said, but Withey turned about and attempted to reach the nearby shore. The boat filled with water and san as it neared land, throwing the eleven persons aboard it into the lake.

 

The tug, which had stopped after the collision, proceeded across the lake when first mate James J. Clinton, of Marine Island, N. Y. who was in charge, saw the yacht sail away. The tug’s master was Capt. Fred H. Godfrey.

 

I found several articles on the accident, including the investigation and trial of the tug owners for negligence.